Your input on a perpetual RDWC setup? +rep & love all around

Hi all,

I'd like to do a perpetual grow using multiple RDWC setups as required. I'd hopefully like to keep it legal in my state, so that would be a maximum of 12 plants in veg AND 6 in flower. (or 24V/0F, or 0V/12F) The idea of using both a perpetual and an RDWC setup would be to achieve maximum yield in short intervals with reduced workload/hands-on labor. A goal would be to achieve 1lb. per 3wk. cycle (~0.5lb. per plant per cycle). Unsure if any training would be required.

What might be the best way to do this? I was thinking perhaps a 4-cycle system of 3-week intervals, so theres a cycle to veg for 3 weeks, another cycle for early-flower, mid-flower, and the last cycle would be late-flower/flush. My thoughts are using RDWC will allow me to grow bigger plants quickly as opposed to the SOG style and related grow methods, which will grow numerous smaller plants and not be in line with the legality of it. I've also heard RDWC will sometimes finish plants a bit quicker, will be easy to administer nutrients and help maintain a stable environment, and make it so that I'm not refilling buckets every day (addition of a rez). Does this sound good so far or would you do it a different way?

In terms of the actual setup, I was thinking of using 2x 5-gal buckets for the plant pots, for each cycle, with the addition of another 5-gal bucket as a control bucket, and a 20-gal or so container as a rez.

So each setup would be:

1x 20gal. Rez
3x 5gal. Bucket (2 plants, 1 control)
1x Submersible water pump for recirculation
1x ~40w air pump with 4-outputs (2 plants, 1 control, 1 rez)

It seems simple enough to hook it all up and stuff... get some uniseals and what not. Also what water pump size do u think might be appropriate for each setup?

Am I on the right track here? Thanks in advice for any advice from all you perpetual experts out there. Peace and love, and bluntz!!!

mr.bond

bump.... anyone with undercurrent experience?? thanks very much...

mr.bond

0.5lbs per plant? If youre a new grower that's gonna be basically impossible to achieve.

What lights you planning on using?

EDIT: 3 week veg? You must be insane to think you can pull those numbers off tbh.

think im missing something. 3 week cycles mean, 2 plants @ 0-3 weeks, 2@ 3-6, 2@ 6-9. This means 1/4 lb per plant. I have not done any DWC but it seems to get quick veg growth. I do not think it can flower faster than the strain allows. I think a DWC setup is way too much work for a perpetual but thats just my opinion. I prefer soil but i understand you wanting to speed growth.. The thing is that once you are up to having finished product, you will be doing a lot of work on a very consistent basis. cloning, rotating, drying, trimming. just my thoughts. Im home 24-7 now so its not hard for me but once i get back to work, and my baby is born, i want to balance the time spent in my garden with the yeilds i want to get. I felt that any hydro setup, for me, would not work. Just think about it from all angles.

If you insist on running 3 buckets per stage (2 with the plants, and one control), why not just link ALL the control buckets into ONE rez...You're not putting nutrient water in your rez, just pH'd water, right? So then all the controls could potentially share one rez to keep things topped off...I'm almost 3 weeks into flower on ALMOST the same perpetual as you, except I have 2 stages in veg, one 0-3 weeks, and one 3-6, and then 3 stages in flower all 3 weeks apart. Tuesday I'll be throwing my 2nd set into flower along with the first set...I think you might wanna veg like 6 weeks if you plan on getting any sorta numbers outta your plants. Good luck, bro

P.S.-All my buckets are individual reservoirs at the moment, it's not terrible to do the weekly change, but it definately takes a little upkeep.

different stages he wants different ppm's i bet

chasmtz said:

different stages he wants different ppm's i bet

Click to expand...

Yeah, understandable...but if you're topping off with straight pH'd water anyway, sharing the rez wouldn't be a problem as long as it';s elevated above the control buckets, and the controls are set on float valves...So a shared rez wouldn't effect the individual PPM's in the control buckets/stages(cycles)

Harrekin said:

0.5lbs per plant? If youre a new grower that's gonna be basically impossible to achieve.

What lights you planning on using?

EDIT: 3 week veg? You must be insane to think you can pull those numbers off tbh.

Click to expand...

Hi Harrekin,

Thanks for your interest. This will be my fourth grow. I'll be using a high-intensity 1000w HPS on a digital/dimmable ballast for flower, and either a 400w or 600w for veg. I already have the 1000w, just need to get the smaller veg light.

I have seen some pretty explosive growth with DWC, and even more so with undercurrent-style setups. If you don't think a 3-week veg is enough, I could do a second 3-week veg cycle. My concern would be the plants getting too large after 6-weeks of veg. And I theorize that a 5-gal bucket might not be big enough to hold the massive root ball created during a 6-week veg.

Here is a link to Woodsmaneh's RDWC:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/414078-big-6-500-00-adventure-7.html

The pics on that page are right before he switched to flower, after vegging for about 3.5 weeks. Note his system uses 13gal buckets.

mr.bond

chasmtz said:

think im missing something. 3 week cycles mean, 2 plants @ 0-3 weeks, 2@ 3-6, 2@ 6-9. This means 1/4 lb per plant. I have not done any DWC but it seems to get quick veg growth. I do not think it can flower faster than the strain allows. I think a DWC setup is way too much work for a perpetual but thats just my opinion. I prefer soil but i understand you wanting to speed growth.. The thing is that once you are up to having finished product, you will be doing a lot of work on a very consistent basis. cloning, rotating, drying, trimming. just my thoughts. Im home 24-7 now so its not hard for me but once i get back to work, and my baby is born, i want to balance the time spent in my garden with the yeilds i want to get. I felt that any hydro setup, for me, would not work. Just think about it from all angles.

Click to expand...

Hi chasmtz,

Thanks for your input. You missed a cycle, it would be V1, F1, F2, F3, but you have the basic idea. I can attest to the quick veg growth from DWC if the temps are kept under control and an undercurrent setup should easily top that due to the massive oxygenation.

About the doing lots of work... I already do lots of work. Haha... actually I believe that a setup like this would be much easier to maintain than the current systems I have going. My DWC plants can seriously drink down all 4gal in less than 2 days. For me, constantly mixing and replacing buckets is pretty time consuming, and there is too much variance in rez conditions because of the way they feed. Cloning shouldn't be a big deal, a few clones every 3-week cycle. Rotating should be easy, I can just move the lid/netpot to the buckets in the next stage as needed. Drying and trimming, while time consuming, I'll only be doing 2 plants every 3 weeks. This is easily manageable for me, moreso than trying to harvest a whole bunch of plants at once.

Thanks again!
mr.bond

Metasynth said:

If you insist on running 3 buckets per stage (2 with the plants, and one control), why not just link ALL the control buckets into ONE rez...You're not putting nutrient water in your rez, just pH'd water, right? So then all the controls could potentially share one rez to keep things topped off...I'm almost 3 weeks into flower on ALMOST the same perpetual as you, except I have 2 stages in veg, one 0-3 weeks, and one 3-6, and then 3 stages in flower all 3 weeks apart. Tuesday I'll be throwing my 2nd set into flower along with the first set...I think you might wanna veg like 6 weeks if you plan on getting any sorta numbers outta your plants. Good luck, bro

P.S.-All my buckets are individual reservoirs at the moment, it's not terrible to do the weekly change, but it definately takes a little upkeep.

Click to expand...

Hi Metasynth,

Curiously, do you have a forum post about your system? I was actually thinking of putting nutrient water in the seperate rez containers for different ppm's as chasmtz stated, but now that you mention it, perhaps straight pH'd water in one central rez might be a better option. If I were to do this, I'm wondering how often I would need to replace the nutrient water with a fresh solution. Obviously over time the PPM would drop due to plant uptake and the addition of fresh water. In your perpetual, how do you manage room and rez temperature control? Just curious.

Thanks metasynth,
mr.bond

I'm running in an open air reflector, and just cooling the room my flower chamber draws air from with a 5000BTU AC unit, rez temps aren't too much of an issue, cause I use tap and I think the chloramine in my water keeps slime away....


Keeping fresh water in the rez, the PPM drops some, and I'd change the water in the buckets once a week...I dunno, I have yet to implement my shared rez, and I'm currently topping off by hand, but still just topping off with pH'd water. If all else fails, just test the PPM of your control buckets and adjust accordingly there, right? I dunno, there are SO many different ways to set up these grows, and there are lots of RIGHT ways and lots of WRONG ways...I'm no pro, just ahead of you in my flowering...lol...And my setup is a work in progress, since I still have some plants in soil as well(first set)...the set I'm throwing in on Tuesday is soil too(second set), but the ones that have been vegging 2 weeks(3rd set) are all in DWC, so I have a few weeks before I need to finalize my setup for all DWC.

If I veg for much longer than 2 weeks I get trees. 3 weeks should be plenty.

I use a 5 gallon bucket and a float valve to top off my reservoir. I use Lucas Formula and my top off water is 1/3 solution. This keeps my ppm and ph in check. Haven't changed my reservoir out in a month. Some guys claim to get 3 complete runs without changing the reservoir out with this method. I don't think I'll do that but some do.

The other rule of thumb is to just use plain water as top of water and change the reservoir out once you have added the same amount of top off water that your system started with when full. If you start with 40 gallons, change it out after you have added a total of 40 gallons of top of water.

And don't forget the Tea!

I personally do a 4 system setup I'm wanting to do rdwc for mine I do dwc already I use t5 for veg to keep the plants relative I give one month for clones to get established and get to the size I desire then after a month I move them over to the next t5 for a whole month of true happy growth then I take my plants to the other room to start there flowering I get genetics that call for about 8 weeks flower then after a month I add the next round and keep that process how could I run rdwc and keep it in that cycle